Alarm mechanism.



J. M. BUTCHER.

ALARM MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED 6521316, l9l6- RENEWED JAN. 31,1919- L3OL783, Patented Apr. 22,1919.

-NE .vmmls PETERS co., Puomurlm. WASHING mm. D. c.

J. M BUTCHER.

ALARM MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED OCT- I6. 1916. RENEWED JAN. 31. 1 919.

' L3UL783 Patented Apr. 22, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

"cairn era JAMES M. BUTCHER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

ALARM MECHANISM.

Application filed October 16, 1916, Serial No. 125,791.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JAMns M. BUTCHER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Alarm Mechanisms; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to alarm mecha nisms, its general object being to provide a simple, sensitive and positive mechanism, adapted to be used in a large variety of ways for sounding an alarm when one object is moved with respect to another. In its more common embodiments, my invention relates more particularly to an alarm mechanism suitable for attachment to a valise, cash box or other container and designed for automatically sounding analarm (as for example by ringing a bell) when this container is lifted or otherwise moved. In appliances heretofore oifered for this purpose, the alarm mechanism has been released or set off by the action of a releasing element projecting through a perforation in the bottom of the container and normally bearing against the table or other support upon which the container was resting, and the releasing has been effected either by the downward movement of this element when the container was lifted off its support, or by a tilting of this element when the containenwas slid laterally upon its support. In practice, it has been found comparatively easy for any one familiar with such an alarm contrivance to slide a thin metal plate under the container, thereby holding the releasing element in an inoperative position while the manipulator raised the container and walked off with the same. Moreover, even if the alarm bell started ringing when the valise or other container was lifted, the culprit taking the same might easily slip his hand under the bottom of the container so as to lift the detent element and stop the ringing of the bell so quickly that the latter might easily be mistaken by listeners for a door bell or a telephone bell. To guard against such an occurrence, my invention aims to provide means whereby the upward pressing of the releasing element after the Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 22, I919 Renewed January 31, 1919. Serial No. 274,360.

latter has once been lowered by the lifting of the container will not return this element to an inoperative position; also, to provide means for supplementing the ringing of the bell by an auxiliary alarm of a kind which could not be confused with an ordinary signal, as for example by the firing of a shot. My invention also aims to provide means for making the actuating of the detent practically independent of the smoothness of the surface upon which the container may be resting, and also aims to cheapen the appliance by utilizing as an important constituent a standard type of alarm appliance, as for example, the mechanism of a spring-actuated door bell. Further objects will appear from the following specifications and from the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of a metal container equipped with the mechanism of my invention.

Fig. 2- is an interior plan view of the same.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged side view of the alarm mechanism, taken from the plane 1-1 in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4l is a vertical section taken along the line 44 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5- is a vertical section along the line 55 in Fig. 4:.

Fig. 6 is a section similar to Fig. 4, but showing the mechanism after it has been actuated.

In the drawings, my invention is shown as applied to a met-al box of the kind commonly known as cash boxes, in which case the mechanism of my invention is desirably mounted in a housing 1 which may readily be secured to the cash box 2, thereby permitting the use of a standard type of box. In this embodiment, my invention consists primarily of an energy-actuated alarm (such as a gong 3 housing a springdriven mechanism controlled by a detent, all of which are well known in the art and hence need no description or detailed drawings here), a release element a positioned for releasing the detent of the alarm mechanism, and novel means for controlling this release element, which means may be modified in many ways without departing from the spirit of my invention. In the drawings, the release element 4 is pivoted upon a lug 5 carried by a side of the housing 1, and the element 4: has a tip 6 reaching into the interior of the casing 1, where this tip continuously bears against a yieldingly mounted detent.

Pressing against the other end of the lever 41: is a vertical slide 7 mounted on a frame 8 and continuously urged downwardly by a spring 9. Pivoted to the lower end of the slide 7 (which desirably has the shape of an inverted U) is a pendulum 10 which preferably is so hung as to be freely movable in all directions with respect to its pivot.

This pendulum normally extends vertically (or in alinement with the direction of movement of the slide) and bears with its lower end against the top of a contact element, which latter is disposed at the bottom of the housing 1 and which is adapted to project through aline'd apertures in this housing and in the bottom of the casing 2. The contact element is preferably revoluble and preferably also in the form of the ball 12 larger in diameter that at least one of the said apertures, so that the walls of the last named apertures will limit the movement of the ball in a downward direction, while its upward movement is limited by such other means as for example a tube 13 having a contracted upper end.

Pivoted to the upper end of the slide 7 is a cam 14 adapted to be moved by a lever 15, which cam bears against a part of the frame 8, so that the movement of the lever 15 will raise the slide 7 against the action of the spring 9, thereby also raising the pendulum 10 to a point where its lower end readily clearsthe ball 12. l/Vhen the cam and pendulum are in this position, the box equipped with my mechanism can be handled freely without sounding any alarm and the lifting of the ball by its engagement with the top of any surface on which it is set down will have no effect.

Upon setting the box down on a table or floor, the ball is raised to bring its lowest point flush with the bottom of the box. If new the cam 14 is thrown over to the position shown in Fig. 4, the pendulum will strike the top of the ball and will be stopped by the latter in a vertical position, thereby checking a further downward movement of the slide 7. Then any rolling action of the ball 12, such as that caused by sliding the box upon the table or floor, will move the lower end of the pendulum in the same direction, thereby permitting it to slide off the ball so that the slide 7 can descend and actuate the lever 4 to operate the alarm mechanism. Likewise, a lifting of the box will permit the ball to move within the tube 13 so as to allow a similar downward movement of the slide.

However, if the box is lifted vertically and if the ball would again squarely engage the lower end of the pendulum so as to lift the latter when the box is again set down, the alarm mechanism would be stopped and the momentary ringing of the bell might easily be mistaken for that of a door bell or telephone bell. To guard against such an occurence, I provide means for positively sliding the pendulum off the ball during the descent of the former, by equipping the slide 7 with means for tilting the pendulum when the slide descends beyond the point shown in Fig. 4. For example, the pendulum may project through a rin 16 formed at the lower end of a trlp lever 17 pivoted to the slide, positioned out of the common plane of the slide 7, the pendulum and the center of ball 12, and equipped with a cam 18 adapted to engage a portion of the frame 8, this cam being so disposed as to just be ready for action when the slide is in the position of Fig. 1. Then a downward motion of the slide from this position will cause the said cam to tilt the trip lever 17 as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 6, thereby forcing the tip of the pendulum off the ball, after which the pendulum can only be restored to its initial position by turning the cam 14 and thus raising the slide 7. Consequently, either a sliding or a lifting of the box will not only start the alarm bell to ringing, but will cause the latter to continue ringing until stopped by a suitable manipulation in the interior of the box, or by the running down of the spring of the alarm mechanism, it being impossible to stop it by digital or other upward pressure on the ball 12.

However, since even a continuous ringing of the bell might be mistaken for that of some other bell, I preferably also provide an auxiliary alarm of a nature affording a sound that cannot be mistaken for an ordinary signal, as for example by firing a blank cartridge. Thus, a holder 18- for a cartridge 20 may be affixed to one side of the housing 1 and disposed in the path of a lever 19 continually urged toward the cartridge 20 by a spring 21, but normally detained by a detent 22. Mounted on any convenient rotating portion of the alarm mechanism is a finger 23 which is adapted to engage the detent 22 during the rotation of the said portion, thereby releasing the lever 19 and allowing the latter to impact against the cartridge. When thus equipped with the double alarms of my invention, any manipulation of the container while the cam 14 is in its on position of Fig. 4 will start a continuous ringing of the alarm bell and will also fire the cartridge 20.

However, while I have shown and described my invention as embodied in a mechanism including a forked slide and a ringended trip, I do not wish to be limited to these or other details of the construction or arrangement herein disclosed, it being obvious that the same might be modified in many ways without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. An alarm mechanism for one of two relatively movable objects, including a revoluble element carried by one of said objects and positioned for contacting with the other object, a thrust element and spring means also carried by the first named object, the spring means being arranged in thrust position for continuously pressing the thrust element toward the revoluble element; in combination with means independent of the revoluble element for moving the thrust ele ment out of its thrust position upon a predetermined movement of the latter element.

2. An alarm mechanism for one of two relatively movable objects, including a revoluble element carried by one of said objects and positioned for contacting with the other object, a thrust element pivotally mounted near the revoluble element and normally bearing with one end against the revoluble element, means for forcing the thrust element toward the revoluble element, and devices responsive to a predetermined movement of the thrust element for moving the latter upon its pivotal mounting.

3. The combination with alarm mechanism, of releasing means including a revoluble element mounted for bodily movement along a given axis, a pendulum normally alined with said axis and normally bearing with its free end against said element, and devices associated with the pendulum for moving the latter about its pivotal mounting upon a bodily movement of the pendulum along said axis.

4. The combination with a spring-driven alarm mechanism, of releasing means including a revoluble element mounted for bodily movement along a given axis, a pivoted member mounted for movement along the same axis, a thrust element pivoted to said member and normally alined with said axis and bearing with one end against the revoluble element, and devices responsive to a movement of the pivot member for moving the thrust element about its pivotal mounting.

5. The combination with a spring-driven alarm mechanism, of releasing means including a revoluble element mounted for bodily movement along a given axis, a pivot member mounted for movement along the same axis, and a thrust. element pivoted to said member and normally extending in alinement with said axis and bearing with one end against the revoluble element, and devices responsive to a movement of the pivot member for moving the thrust element out of alinement with said axis.

6. The combination with a spring-driven alarm mechanism, of a container housing the same and having a perforation in one of its walls, a revoluble element carried by the container and adapted to project through the said perforation; releasing means for the alarm mechanism including a thrust element movably carried by the container and normally continuously hearing against the revoluble element, means for forcing the thrust element toward the revoluble element, and devices responsive to a movement of the thrust element for moving the latter out of its normal thrusteffecting engagement with the revoluble element.

7. The combination with a container having a perforation in one of its walls, of a spring-actuated alarm mechanism housed by the container, a detent for said mechanism, and means for releasing the detent; said means including a ball mounted at said wall and disposed for projecting through said preforation and mounted for non-rotational movement only in a direction trans verse to said wall; a spring-pressed follower normally engaging said ball, and devices responsive to a non-rotational movement of said ball in a direction outwardly of the container for moving the follower out of its normal thrust-effecting engagement with the ball.

8. The combination with a spring-driven alarm mechanism, of releasing means including a revoluble element mounted for bodily movement along a given axis, a slide, a thrust element interposed between the slide and the revoluble element, and cooperating deflecting elements carried respectively by the slide and by an adjacent portion of the mechanism and arranged for deflecting the thrust element out of its normal thrustefi'ecting engagement with the revoluble element, said deflecting means being responsive in operation to a movement of the slide.

9. In an alarm mechanism as per claim 6, means for forcing the thrust element against the revoluble element, including a guide mounted in the container, and a spring-pressed member slidably mounted on, the guide and pivotally connected to the thrust element.

10. In an alarm mechanism as per claim 6, means for forcing the thrust element against the revoluble element including a guide mounted in the container and a springpressed member slidably mounted on the guide and pivotally connected to the thrust element with means operatively interposed between the slide and the guide for latching the slide against movement by the spring.

11. The combination with an alarm mechanism, of a carrier for the same, a lever pivoted on the carrier for releasing the alarm mechanism, a guide fast upon the carrier, a revoluble element carried by the carrier and adapted to project beyond a surface of the latter, and means controlled by the position of the revoluble element for moving the said lever; said means including a member slidably mounted on the guide and continuously engaging the lever, a pendulum carried by said element and engaging the revoluble element, and a spring interposed between the guide and the said member and normally pressing the latter and the pendulum respectively against the lever and the revoluble element.

12. Mechanism as per claim 11, in combination with cooperating means carried by 15 the guide and the said member for causing a sliding of the latter on the guide to move the pendulum out of its normal engagement With the revoluble element.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, October 13th, 20

JAMES M. BUTCHER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington, D. G. 

